December 20, 2010 - Spain will be jumping on the anti-smoking bandwagon the first of the year, bringing it up to par with the European Union’s tough stand on smoking in public places.

The Institute of Economics Studies (IEE) calculates that around 50,000 jobs will be lost in the hotel and catering industry as a result of the anti-smoking laws due to come into force on January 2, 2011. The latest study suggests that the new laws will see a 3-3.5% job loss in a sector that currently employs approximately 1.5 million people, which would in turn have a "very negative impact" on the sector's contribution to the GDP, which currently stands at 7.2%.

Spain’s restaurant and bar federation predict losses of 145,000 jobs in the industry and a 10 percent decline in revenue due to the tough anti-smoking law. (Spain set to implement tough anti-smoking laws by Kim I. Hartman, Digital Journal, 10/23/2010)

However, health ministry officials said similar laws have been put into place in Britain and France in recent years and business was not affected that badly, says the Barcelona Reporter. Many disagree with this premise.

Spain will amend its anti-tobacco law to extend a smoking ban to bars, cafes, restaurants and all other enclosed public spaces in the country. The current law put in place in 2006 prohibits smoking in the workplace, and workers puffing away just outside their office buildings are a common sight. But that law aimed at cracking down on smoking allowed owners of most bars and cafes to decide on their own whether to allow smoking - and almost all ended up doing so, leading critics to label the earlier law as a total failure.

Made it tougher than some nations that allow bar and restaurant smoking sections. Those bar and cafe owners will now lose the privilege, and larger restaurants that still have smoking sections will have to get rid of them. It goes even further by prohibiting smoking in outdoor places such as playgrounds and the grounds of schools and hospitals.There are some exceptions to the rules, hotels were given permission to set aside 30% of their rooms for smokers but a plea from the bar / restaurant federation was rejected to enable them to set up isolated space within their premises for smokers. It is also permitted to smoke within special zones in the following enclosed areas prisons, psychiatric wards and old people’s homes.

Smoking will be allowed in terraces, at stadiums, at bullrings, and at all open spaces.

The ban is necessary because smoking is one of the biggest killers in Spain, with some 50,000 smoking-related deaths annually (population: 47 million). Officials predict thousands of lives now lost to second-hand smoke will be saved.Spain’s National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking says up to 1,000 Spanish bar waiters die yearly from lung cancer, mainly from breathing in so much second hand smoke. Many more lives would be saved eventually in Spain by making it more difficult for smokers to puff away almost anywhere, said Dr. Jose Carreras who heads the anti-smoking unit at Madrid’s Hospital Carlos III.

“When these measures are implemented, there is a much more noticeable decrease in people quitting smoking than at this moment,” he said. “This means that in 20 years time there will be a decrease in deaths due to smoking related diseases.”